The husband of the so-called director of the Lazdyna Hospital, Jelena Kutkauskienė, has been charged in the second corruption investigation related to the health care system in recent years, according to the prosecutor's office and BNS sources.
The General Prosecutor's Office confirmed to BNS the information about the pre-trial investigation conducted by the Special Investigation Service (STT) regarding influence trading, according to which a shareholder of one company demanded a bribe from the manager of another company through an intermediary.
According to the investigation, a bribe was demanded for the aforementioned shareholder to influence the administration of the Republican Vilnius University Hospital (RVUL) to make decisions related to the smooth acceptance and payment of goods sold by the company manager to the hospital.
"Suspects have been handed over to two persons who are not related to RVUL in terms of employment," said Rita Stundienė, the spokesperson of the General Prosecutor's Office, to BNS.
In the course of the investigation, the office of J. Kutkauskienė and the workplaces of several other employees were searched last week, and they were questioned as witnesses, BNS sources informed about the investigation said.
The man is suspected of demanding a bribe, he does not comment on the situation
According to BNS, one of the two suspects of influence peddling is J. Kutkauskienė's husband Kęstutis Kutkauskas.
He is the director and main shareholder of Limetos NT, according to data from the Registry Center.
K. Kutkauskas is suspected of demanding a bribe in order to influence the RVUL administration led by his wife due to favorable decisions of the head of another company.
The Ministry of Health did not comment on the pre-trial investigation in detail.
"According to the data of the Ministry of Health, the ongoing investigation is related to the hospital's purchases, no suspicions have been brought against the hospital's employees. For more detailed information, you should contact the General Prosecutor's Office and the Special Investigations Service, which controls the investigation," Tomas Bagdonas, the press representative of the Minister of Health Arūnas Dulkios, told BNS.
The Special Investigations Service told BNS that it was investigating "a shareholder of one company who possibly tried to influence the employees of the administration of the Republican Vilnius University Hospital", but did not comment in detail either.
When the news agency BNS contacted K. Kutkauskas by phone and told him the topic of the conversation, he indicated that he did not have time and hung up the phone.
BNS failed to contact J. Kutkauskiene.
Still a suspect in an investigation that began in 2021
K. Kutkauskas is suspected in another pre-trial investigation related to corruption in the health care system. It was announced in 2021.
According to the research, the representatives of the companies selling medical devices and equipment, possibly acting by various illegal means, over a period of more than one year, could have enabled the companies to illegally win the purchases of various Lithuanian medical institutions for more than 3 million. euros.
It was then announced that criminal acts such as abuse, bribery, influence peddling, bribery, as well as fraudulent accounting and document forgery are being investigated.
At the time, the law enforcement stated that during public procurement by institutions, "competition was restricted, other suppliers were discriminated against", and the conditions were adjusted so that certain protégé companies won.
The General Prosecutor's Office informed BNS that the investigation is still ongoing, but its individual parts have been separated on various grounds.
According to BNS, K. Kutkauskas still has the status of a suspect in the investigation.
Dozens of suspects
The main pre-trial investigation is currently underway on 19 suspects, including two legal entities, and 34 criminal acts, but previously it was much larger in scope.
Other investigations separated from the main pre-trial investigation are also currently being conducted.
The Šiauliai Board is investigating eight crimes and six suspects, while the Central Board is investigating two suspects.
In 2021, when all investigations into possible corruption were combined into one large investigation, it included over 130 acts and 81 suspects.
Since then, there have been 11 separate cases involving 52 acts and 29 suspects.
Criminal orders concluded several pre-trial investigations for six acts and nine persons, including a legal entity. In total, almost 118 thousand was allocated to the convicts. EUR fines, almost EUR 18 thousand were confiscated.
Five separate pre-trial investigations regarding 25 acts against 23 persons were concluded with indictments.
In one pre-trial investigation, two natural persons and one legal entity were convicted and fined 66. EUR, another 20 thousand euros was confiscated. In other studies, there are no solutions yet.
Pre-trial investigations against nine persons have been terminated by releasing them from liability on bail.
Author Saulius Jakučionis
